Fallout: New Vegas: Case For Caesar
by Orovyr
Summary: Any well read mind knows that Caesar is more than what we see at face value. Fools and imbeciles only see a despot doing evil for the sake evil and power, but anyone who takes an open minded approach to Caesar's Legion understands that this is simply not the case. Find out why...


We have all heard the stories of Caesar's Legion, how they rape, pillage and murder their enemies and their families. How they cultivated and mastered the art of fear. As backwards as this army of slaves conducts itself in the name of conquest, there is something much larger at play than simply to wage war and dominate.

At face value, there is no logic to their strategy or tactics or their beliefs. So, I had to allow myself to keep an open mind and seek out the one and only man I could think of who would answer the many questions I had.

When I decided to finally allow Caesar to explain himself in one of my play-throughs, I asked a lot of questions, and many he was willing to answer, but only after I demonstrated my loyalty to him. However, when I stand around, he references and directly quotes from many books that actually exist. And there's one author he refers to a lot when he takes the time to explain himself.

"The NCR is a loose conglomerate of individuals only looking out for themselves. It's not built to last. I will destroy it because it's inevitable it will be destroyed. It's Hegelian Dialectics, not personal animosity."

For those not versed in the art of philosophy, Hegelian Dialectics is a real world philosophy of the German philosopher, Georg Hegel - one of the most important philosophers of his time and to this day.

He left his mark on Philosophy by studying the past, and from this he was able to decipher a pattern in human behaviour over the course of thousands of years of recorded history.

He discovered that with every conflict, from a minor argument between friends to an all-out war, had a recurring pattern. A constant in human history. It was through this truth that he was able to define what we would now know as Hegelian Dialectics;

He found that with conflict there is always an action he called a 'Thesis' that, consequently, created an opposing reaction called an 'Antithesis' and that the eventual conflict between them would inevitably birth a solution called a 'Synthesis' in some form or another.

This chain reaction as described by Hegel can be simplified in a way that is easier to digest. Think of it as a complicated explanation of human conflict: a Cause, a Reaction, and a Solution. Two extremes fighting until compromise was reached. This was the predictable pattern Hegel found in his study of the past.

Hegel believed that modern problems could be solved by looking into the past, to find a familiar pattern of events in a specific period in history as a way of knowing the future. This way he could see into the future by looking into the past.

Before you're disillusioned by this concept, this is not seeing into the future, but simply the observation of patterns that have occurred in the past repeating themselves in the present, and if left alone to its natural end, we can predict what that end will be in the future. Whether you have heard this before or hearing it now,

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana.

The method of learning before books and written language was through imagery and storytelling. Someone somewhere down the line had this brilliant idea of turning that imagery, symbols, into abstract concepts of meaning we know today as letters to both tell those stories and print events and history as they happened.

Someone realised we could not continue to take the path of abstract imagery and storytelling, we needed to progress to truly learn and perhaps add to that knowledge.

Like all new and wonderful things, written language and books were subject to rejection and outright condemnation. Those that encouraged the learning of written language and books were ostracised by religious organisations, outdated concepts of conservatism, and were once thought of as ridiculous by the common person.

The same was true of the many who introduced agriculture, building structure out of clay, pots and pans out of clay and copper.

Hippocrates - the founder of modern medicine - was the man most recognised for saying that it should be left to mortals who decide the fate of the sick and wounded rather than leave the decision to the Olympian gods.

Much like all those with great ideas, these men and women with them were outcasts and social rejects, heretics, blasphemers, degenerates and monsters and many things.

It is a constant throughout history. A man with a brilliant, albeit strange, idea creates something the masses consider taboo, evil, etc. And is cast out by society and probably killed.

A craftsman in Rome presented to Emperor Tiberius Caesar...flexible glass...a glass that would dent rather than shatter upon contact with great force.

Emperor Tiberius had the craftsman beheaded fearing that the glass would outweigh the value of gold and silver.

To this day flexible glass is a lost technology we still have yet to replicate. The technology today would be much different, radically so, if flexible glass had been presented to anyone other than Tiberius Caesar and mass produced.

Back to the topic at hand…

The tales above are about men and women who had radically changed the world with their ideas and inventions. Many inventions are accidental, unintentional, or had a purpose, but all had a realisation that the world could be better if something new was added to it.

The things they risked trying to change the world were monumental all because of the stigma behind radical change to the status quo. What goes uninvented because of this stigma? What is forgotten and lost? Ideas repressed and unspoken?

Today we have observed and recorded our history in books. We may learn history, but we have not learned from it. Not in a long time I would argue.

You are asking, "How does this make a case for Caesar's Legion? How does this support the cause of the most barbaric and immoral band of slaves and tribes to exist post-apocalypse?"

It's backwards, degenerative and monstrous.

Now I will tell you. But do not expect this to satisfy your conventional moral code. For Caesar, defining morality as something between good and evil is a brand of stagnation, he is a Nietzschean, the Übermensch, beyond good and evil.

Hegel knew that if we did not learn from history, we would repeat it. His method of learning from history was to influence current events that lead to a desirable outcome, and this is Caesar's intention.

In Hegel's view, every civilisation from past to present was a grand human experiment, and that each of them taught us a lesson from its successes and its failures. This led to the invention of Hegelian Dialectics.

It seems appropriate to address the obvious.

The Roman Empire.

What could it teach us? Where did it succeed to allow its longevity? Where did it fail in causing its destruction?

The Roman Empire could teach us how to assimilate and conquer, while also teaching us the failures of over expansion and integration (lack thereof).

The thesis in this situation was its rapid expansion across Europe, and the resulting antithesis was the growth of dissent and resentment within the empire and resulted in rebellion, both by the rise of Christianity and the Barbarians.

It is Caesar's belief that Rome's failure was rooted in its inability or refusal to integrate its subjects into its empire, that it was the tolerance of diverse cultures that destroyed Rome;

This is why he annihilates cultural identity in every tribe he conquers. For him this was the source of Rome's fall. But it is also the reason why he applies Rome's ability to conquer fast and wide. This way he can grow as fast as he can expand without the worry of dissent on the scale the old Rome had faced.

I - the author here - am a living example of a similar success, though unintentional at the time. My country was once nine independent kingdoms and Celtic tribes.

Somewhere down the line, we were all conquered and unified into one that would build an empire that conquered ¼ of the world, its ideas and beliefs are spread far and wide that perpetuate its existence even after its twilight hours are gone.

There is no semblance of the tribes or the kingdoms that came before, only ruins and historical landmarks and texts have survived. The identity is dead and they're barely remembered just as footnotes in our history.

The Legion is not simply a copy of the Roman Empire. If Caesar's Legion were simply a clone it would have fallen for the same reasons the old Rome would have, long ago. The fact that this has not happened is proof of this.

There is no identity conflict within the Legion, there is only the Legion. All who reside within it know of no alternative.

Caesar learned from history, learned from Rome and applied its successes while avoiding the failures. Caesar's Legion is stronger than Rome for this.

You could make the argument that one of Rome's strengths also came from its technology and advancement over time, and you would be right in addressing this small inconsistency. There is no progress, agriculture, infrastructure or any of this within the legion.

However, in the world of fallout - and you could argue in real life - history has demonstrated why he does not allow the use of technology within the Legion beyond the standard rifle.

The United States and its history in the fallout universe.

Most of what Caesar believes stem from the failures of the United States in the fallout universe and its post-war analogue, the New California Republic.

Sole responsibility falls on the United States for destroying the world. The miracle technology of nuclear fusion would have ended the resource wars before they began. This piece of technology would have saved the world from over reliance on drained limited resources. Instead it was greedily hoarded for power and influence.

Nuclear fusion was exclusively American technology and the sole reason for their military supremacy and influence and their inevitable destruction.

Much like the craftsman in Rome, the technology that could have radically changed the world was brutally silenced from the rest of the world and starved of a potential future that allowed them to continue;

Power armour, laser and plasma weapons, fusion powered cars and robots. None of this would be found anywhere in Europe, Asia, Africa or anywhere else. Nuclear fusion was exclusively American technology they refused to share since its application into a nearly limitless source of power and energy.

All the corrupt politicians and corporations could see was the disadvantage they would have against other countries if they shared the technology, they blinded themselves to the reality and the suffering caused by their greed.

I often question if the United States was even capitalist. The idea of capitalism is to incentivise good behaviour and the betterment of mankind through material gain to sustain themselves on the individual level, to allow us to lead a moral existence.

Greed stifles that incentive and I will not hear anyone who argues differently, greed is a sin for a reason based on logic and rationality, beyond the purview of religious zealots, the greed in the real world has caused recessions, bankruptcy, war and destitution.

Any benefits from greed quickly fade from any virtuous behaviour and we can point to some very recent examples as empirical evidence to this.

Hoarding the means of salvation for selfish gains has had the same constant outcome throughout history. Slaves against masters, peasants against feudal barons, etc, etc. Everyone loses somewhat in the end and this was a tragedy that gives Caesar's Legion a legitimate reason to exist.

It is one thing to promote growth and innovation, it is another to actively hoard that growth and innovation.

The corruption and greed of the United States reflect itself heavily within the New California Republic with a horrifying resemblance.

Caesar finds this intolerable.

If America fell to nuclear war and you emerged when it was finally safe to return to the surface. You see your home, everything you held closest in your heart all burned and turned to ash. One question alone will be racing through your mind, "Why? How did this happen?"

In the world of fallout, history has demonstrated what happens when technology outpaces your morals.

I am aware, Caesar crucifies people. I won't ask you to forget this, it is actually important that we remember this. I will explain.

Caesar is not a moral man, but I doubt he ever stopped being the Follower of the Apocalypse, Edward Sallow;

If the goal of every Follower of the Apocalypse is to ensure the world never sees destruction on the scale within fallout, then Caesar, Edward Sallow, is more of a Follower of the Apocalypse than any other before or after him.

A student of Hegel is tasked with mining history as they would for gold if their aim was the acquisition of wealth. But if your ultimate goal is saving the world, then Caesar is doing it the most efficient way he knows how.

The New California Republic is mimicking the failures of the past that lead to the destruction of the world on a scale from which the scars will never fade. It is inevitable that it will meet its end with a similar fate.

Arcade Gannon argues that if the New California Republic is doomed to fall, it will on its own. But this ironically strengthens my argument, and by extension, Caesar's argument that it must be destroyed now.

If it's inevitable, then we need to destroy it soon before it's destruction does more damage in the future. The New California Republic is in its infancy, not much will be lost if it is destroyed soon, but left to its own devices and allowed to mature it will follow the same destructive path that led to global destruction.

What's the point of building and preserving a civilisation - for a species that has a foundational instinct to survive at any cost - when its end is foreseeable for obvious reasons? As history recently demonstrated?

No intellectually credible mind should ever accept anything less than finding a way to avoid the failures of the past when you rebuild civilisation. Otherwise you are sowing the death of your civilisation and all efforts are for nothing.

This war with the New California Republic is simply a means of forcing it to recognise its own failure and pushing it to make change.

Caesar does not even need to win the war, everything has been set up in a way that will fall in his favour, even in the event of his death he gets his way.

Tell me, do you not find it just a bit coincidental that for every principled position the New California Republic takes, Caesar's Legion takes the opposite position?

The New California Republic embraces the multitude of cultures within its borders. Caesar's Legion abhors it and stamps them out.

The message Caesar sends here is that acceptance of diverse cultures is a weakness. He does this by showing off the strength it gives him when he does it. It adds to his collective strength, his power and influence.

It allows him to stand on equal ground with a power so superior to his own. In this way he is showing them that blind acceptance is weakness, that all must serve a role in civilisation to allow continued existence.

It shows that ideas should not be accepted when they crumble under the weight of nonconformists and pressure. That extreme views, even morally virtuous ones, serve no good when they are fragile.

Pacifism, for example, cannot exist without the sacrifice of a soldier to allow its existence. This is why pacifism is inherently hypocritical, the world is ruled by forces that impose their will on the world and it requires the threat of destruction to keep the peace.

Pre-war America was corrupt and greedy. It had the technology to end the Resource Wars that prompted the Great War itself, and their monopoly on nuclear fusion left the world to scramble and fight for limited resources.

People by the hundreds of millions were dying because their governments and businesses could not provide the necessities to live.

While America flourished, people in Europe and Asia would perish by the millions each year due to no fault of their own.

My country is mostly cold and wet, our summers are brutal but short. Being in the northern hemisphere, without those limited resources, we would die by the hundreds of thousands in the first winter. We would not survive without them and I rue the day I live to see when those same limited resources are dried up and we're still reliant on them.

America died long before the Great War began. It's tolerance of greed and corruption are what lead to stagnation of the magnitude that eventually destroyed it.

We see the same thing happening with the New California Republic, and because we have seen this happen with the United States, we already know how this experiment will end.

I also know what many of you are thinking. "Just because it happened before, doesn't it will happen again."

Yes it will if the path is continued. You're only saying this because you now know the history and you think you can learn from it. But does the New California Republic? Is it willing to change because you say, "hey, the US has already gone down this road, and we all know how that ended right?"

Human behaviour is a nasty thing when untempered. It will dismiss anything it does not want to hear and assume its own correctness based on nothing.

It is from this understanding that we know Caesar's true goal.

Caesar wants New California Republic to realise something, but to tell them directly would only result in failure and thus would be self-defeating.

Try telling a child good things will come in the future if he does his homework, he won't do it. It is like telling an overweight person they are living unhealthy lives and should start exercising and eating healthy.

We know the road they are going to take. The child will be a high school delinquent with no chance of success unless, by some miracle, he defeats the odds and there's a huge leap on luck and opportunity, assuming he takes it.

I have made my case, it is useless to tell them anything. So, you have to push them, groom them, mould them into what you want them to do for the good of themselves.

Tell the child and bribe them with whatever promises you make. Know what they want and use it as a means of pushing them into the direction you see fit.

This is a parenting tip used by the Jews, because they bring up their kids for success. In this way you give them a good work ethic in future.

Caesar applies the same principle with the New California Republic, but intentionally threatens its existence by challenging the principles upon which the New California Republic stands: its tolerance of cultural diversity, its tolerance of greed and corruption and over-reliance on technology must be wiped out.

We have seen in-game that corruption and greed exist within the New California Republic, the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs of the Silver Rush;

they have no loyalty for the New California Republic and are willing to trade and deal with its enemies all for the sake of profit.

We also see corruption in the New California Republic political landscape. The maximum term for a sitting president in the United States is two, this is a maximum of eight years for every individual in the presidency.

President Tandi of the New California Republic had a term of 52 years and died at the age of 103. Her father, Aredesh, was the previous sitting president and founder of the New California Republic. A republic in name only.

It must convince itself of these realisations. This is the synthesis Caesar is intentionally forcing into existence, one that will change both the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion

This is Caesar's victory.

His Legion is merely a catalyst to force that realisation, to test and push the ideals and force it to abandon them.

The New California Republic cannot defeat the Legion until it destroys its cultural identity. To have such people still live, those that follow the Legion, one of two outcomes will follow.

Either the Legion will infiltrate the political landscape, or the New California Republic will grow a backbone and wipe out all affiliated with the Legion. They both have the same ending.

The New California Republic will have accepted the truth even if they do not know it. Politically, most people are moderates or lean slightly one way or the other. Very rarely are they extreme.

In some way, the people will find a way to create the synthesis Caesar desires through their need to lessen the divide between their peoples. The New California Republic should and will win the war with Caesar's Legion, but there will be equal people loyal to the New California Republic as there are to Caesar's Legion. As I said above, there are only two outcomes.

Acceptance or destruction.

Either way it will have made the realisation Caesar hoped for. Once this realisation is made, Caesar has won.

Even if he dies, his Legion destroyed, his army decimated; his victory is inevitable. If defeated in the war itself, his Legion would survive in an evolved New California Republic, one intolerant of cultural diversity, greed and corruption and over reliance on technology.

In essence, Caesar will have conquered and destroyed the New California Republic by forcing it to unwittingly embrace everything he stands for.

It is pure Machiavellian in the respect that he subscribed that it was the lesser sin to wilfully commit evil for the greater good, rather than commit the greater sin of doing nothing to change the world.

"Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature." - Georg Hegel

* * *

Conclusion

Caesar was written by Obsidian, they are infamous for creating villains and characters that stand alone, are misunderstood, that challenge the status quo all because of what they know and believe. Outcasts who are believed to be monsters for what they do with no thought of why they do it.

Obsidian wrote Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, a game born out of hatred for the Force, it's objectification of morality and its influence on the Star Wars galaxy for creating an endless cycle of rising villains and heroes born to stop them while nothing is learned or changed from the conflicts. endless entertainment for us, madness to the Star Wars Galaxy.

For more in this topic, go to YouTube and search for "Kreia's Philosophy" in the search tab for more detail and understanding on this subject. You'll understand it has heavily influenced me and my decision to write this.

I am aware it may be futile, so I will learn from that failure if it does...

Thank you very much for reading and making it this far. I hope you enjoyed this writing piece and I hope you have a good day/night and life.


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